Warhammer Community recently put up a poll for their best miniature of the year, and reader, there are some problems.
The poll itself is great. We love it when Games Workshop gives us a survey to fill out and submit, it’s a little data entry Treat, and in this case it’s also a hilarious reminder of how long 2021 has felt – I had legitimately forgotten that Sigvald came out this February and not three years ago. So he’s going to win, and restore the streak of righteous Chaos victories that stretches back to the beginning of the MotY rankings, a streak broken only once, during the Ghazghkull Thraka interregnum. That’s not what my issue is. My issue is that they put like 500 options on it, and zero of them are the actual best miniatures of the year. Here, I’ll quote WarCom’s announcement:
…it’s time to put all [emphasis mine] of 2021’s releases in a row and decide which of them will be crowned Miniature of the Year…
…we’d just vote for the crab and call it a day…
I obviously won’t argue that second point, as it’s objectively correct, but I take issue with the first.
I’m talking, of course, about Kill Team: Pariah Nexus. The parts of that box that received individual releases are on here, and I can understand not putting the entire set up for voting because it’s not entirely fair, but this is blatant first-edition Kill Team erasure. I’m at a loss as to why Pariah Nexus was memory-holed. Maybe it was due to being a late expansion for a game nobody liked. Maybe it was the fact that the box was an obvious cash-grab around Heavy Intercessors, with just enough random plastic and cardboard thrown in to call it an “expansion” for a game that, again, nobody liked. We all knew that Big Marines were going to come out on their own soon enough, so why bother buying it? Or maybe it just had to go because a completely new and incompatible version of Kill Team came out right after, and it’s a good game that people actually play and enjoy. Did the Posting Servitor just straight up forget? I know we’ve had that problem with Gregbot before. All of those are good reasons, but I reckon we’ll just never really know why this pointless overpriced box for a dead game that came out in the doldrums of the retail year wasn’t more popular. Could be anything, really. Fortunately no one is ever going to make us remember some pariahs any time soon.
But, on to my picks.
Model of the Year, MotY 2k21
If I had to pick a favorite model from this entire year, it’s the Monolith Seeds, formally called Quantum Nodes, from Kill Team: Pariah Nexus. They come in both single and tandem sizes, and require no assembly other than cutting off the sprue. A single box gives you 20 models, which is great value for money – what else in the modern GW catalogue includes that many miniatures? The only drawback is that they’re monopose, but I consider that a deliberate, and charming, throwback to the Warhammer of old.
Vice-MotY 2k21
My runner-up for Miniature of the Year is the Necron Doors from Kill Team: Pariah Nexus. A single kit comes with a whopping 8 miniatures, with two different styles of cornice. Full of lovingly-sculpted detail and almost zero mold lines, these are one of the best releases of any year, let alone this year. The only reason they aren’t my top pick is that they aren’t poseable, but I think a good enough hobbyist could use them as fodder for conversions into something like a large closed window or a door that’s ajar, or even a sick opening/closing diorama.
Tertiary Model of the Year 2k21
My third place, as a complete shocker, is the Induction Diodes that were included in Kill Team: Pariah Nexus. I just think they’re neat. Some of them are little trashcans with spooky fires inside them, for your Necron hobos to stand around warming up their cans of space beans and swapping stories about hopping warp freight trains in the 40,930s. Are they dangerous? Who knows! I wouldn’t eat out of the thing but they’re cool scatter terrain. The other type of diode is a cross between a traffic cone and a giant mono-eye necron head, something out of the Iron Giant parts bin inside a Build-A-Bear.
There were other models released this year, but I don’t like them as much. Without any Dark Angels to lean on as a homer pick, I got nothing. The new Orks are fine, I guess.
Oh, wait, I forgot about Be’lakor.
Too late! That’s it, but please let us know in the comments if you have differing (read: incorrect) opinions about the Games Workshop Miniature of the Year.
